Founded
in 1884, Temple University is a comprehensive urban public research
university in the United States offering 366 academic degree programs. As
part of a major modernization of its enterprise reporting services
solution, Temple chose to utilize the IBM Software Accelerated Value
Program block-hours offering.

The need

As
part of a move to a new SunGard Banner ERP system, Temple University
had built a data warehouse and analytics solution based on IBM Cognos
software. When it was time to upgrade to a newer version of Cognos,
Temple’s in-house team was keen to learn from the experts and become
more self-sufficient.

The solution

Temple
University chose to utilize the IBM Software Accelerated Value Program,
which provides dedicated technical resources on either a subscription
or an hourly model. Temple purchased 40 hours of technical assistance,
during which an IBM Accelerated Value Specialist worked on-site with the
team to complete the upgrade and transfer knowledge about Cognos that
would help with future upgrades.

The results

Delivered
a full implementation of IBM Cognos software, giving Temple confidence
that its analytics environment is correctly configured for optimum
performance and stability.

Provided
access to top IBM technical experts both on-site and remotely,
eliminating delays in the implementation and allowing the project to be
completed 20 percent faster than expected.

Gave
the university's in-house team the tools and knowledge to set up a new
pre-production Cognos environment for themselves, without external
support.